Secrets To Poaching Eggs

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[MUSIC] Poached eggs are magical things. There's nothing quite like an egg with a soft, silky outside, and a running golden center. Even though they're delicate things, don't let them intimidate you. I'm gonna show you how to poach the perfect egg. So you wanna start with the right kind of pan. And I like to use a pan that's pretty wide and shallow and fill it with about 2 to 3" of water. And then you want to set your pan over kind of a medium heat, because you don't want it to ever really come to a boil or really even a simmer. You just want to get it to a point where the little bubbles on the bottom surface of the pan are kind of dancing off the surface. And while that's coming up to temperature, we're gonna go ahead and crack our eggs into ramekins. Now you don't have to use ramekins, you can crack them directly into the water. But I like doin' it this way. Makes it a little bit less intimidating. Okay, and so now we're ready to poach. I like to put a little bit of vinegar in the water, this helps the egg stay together as it's cooking. If you have a super fresh egg, like a farm egg, you probably don't need the vinegar but I like to use it anyway, just for some insurance and don't worry, you won't be able to taste it in the end. So now, what we're gonna do, is take water and stir it, so it's making kind of like a tornado. What's gonna happen is we're gonna pour the egg into the tornado and it's kind of tumble around itself and that's what will give it its really pretty shape. So we have got out water spinning, and i'm going to add the first egg. And you can see how it just kinda tumbles around in there. [MUSIC] Okay, and i'm going to keep it spinning with the spoon, and then add the second one, perfect. And you just kinda want to keep the eggs moving by gently stirring with the spoon as they cook. So we're gonna let these eggs cook for about 3 minutes. Okay so our eggs are just about done, so you want to take your slotted spoon, and scoop your egg up out of the water. And to check to see if it's done, you can give it just a little poke in the center and it should kinda just bounce back when you touch it. And then you wanna just rest it on the slotted spoon over some paper towels to absorb the excess water. Then you can put the egg right onto your plate. Now, if you've got company coming, you can do this way in advance. And instead of putting the egg onto a plate, you can just put it into a bath of ice water and you can keep the ice water in the fridge for up to 24 hours. And then when you're ready to serve your eggs, you just take them out of the ice water with the slotted spoon. Plop them into some simmering water for about 30 seconds to a minute to reheat them. Okay and this one's perfect. Plop it on my Eggs Benedict here. And we'll top these with a little bit of hollandaise, and with some freshly ground pepper, some crunchy salts, some chives. Now this is it, the moment of truth. We'll cut into the egg, perfect. There you have it a perfectly poached egg. [MUSIC]

[MUSIC] Poached eggs are magical things. There's nothing quite like an egg with a soft, silky outside, and a running golden center. Even though they're delicate things, don't let them intimidate you. I'm gonna show you how to poach the perfect egg. So you wanna start with the right kind of pan. And I like to use a pan that's pretty wide and shallow and fill it with about 2 to 3" of water. And then you want to set your pan over kind of a medium heat, because you don't want it to ever really come to a boil or really even a simmer. You just want to get it to a point where the little bubbles on the bottom surface of the pan are kind of dancing off the surface. And while that's coming up to temperature, we're gonna go ahead and crack our eggs into ramekins. Now you don't have to use ramekins, you can crack them directly into the water. But I like doin' it this way. Makes it a little bit less intimidating. Okay, and so now we're ready to poach. I like to put a little bit of vinegar in the water, this helps the egg stay together as it's cooking. If you have a super fresh egg, like a farm egg, you probably don't need the vinegar but I like to use it anyway, just for some insurance and don't worry, you won't be able to taste it in the end. So now, what we're gonna do, is take water and stir it, so it's making kind of like a tornado. What's gonna happen is we're gonna pour the egg into the tornado and it's kind of tumble around itself and that's what will give it its really pretty shape. So we have got out water spinning, and i'm going to add the first egg. And you can see how it just kinda tumbles around in there. [MUSIC] Okay, and i'm going to keep it spinning with the spoon, and then add the second one, perfect. And you just kinda want to keep the eggs moving by gently stirring with the spoon as they cook. So we're gonna let these eggs cook for about 3 minutes. Okay so our eggs are just about done, so you want to take your slotted spoon, and scoop your egg up out of the water. And to check to see if it's done, you can give it just a little poke in the center and it should kinda just bounce back when you touch it. And then you wanna just rest it on the slotted spoon over some paper towels to absorb the excess water. Then you can put the egg right onto your plate. Now, if you've got company coming, you can do this way in advance. And instead of putting the egg onto a plate, you can just put it into a bath of ice water and you can keep the ice water in the fridge for up to 24 hours. And then when you're ready to serve your eggs, you just take them out of the ice water with the slotted spoon. Plop them into some simmering water for about 30 seconds to a minute to reheat them. Okay and this one's perfect. Plop it on my Eggs Benedict here. And we'll top these with a little bit of hollandaise, and with some freshly ground pepper, some crunchy salts, some chives. Now this is it, the moment of truth. We'll cut into the egg, perfect. There you have it a perfectly poached egg. [MUSIC]